A Mother’s Day Appreciation, From Tehran
She walked me to school, and set me on the path to the rest of my life.
Mother’s Day in Iran is different than in the United States: It’s mostly a religious occasion commemorating the birth of the prophet Muhammad’s daughter, and it falls on a different day than the American version. But it, too, is about appreciation, and every Mother’s Day my thoughts turn to a creased photo, taken around 1970, of a tall woman in black chador, striding down a Tehran street, clutching the hand of a 7-year-old boy. That boy is me, and the woman is my mother, taking me to a place she had never been allowed to go: school. On the sunny, breezy day when the picture was taken, my mother dressed me in a clean white shirt, long pants, and a jacket, and handed me
